With the Public (SC) Department “not responding” to the Collector’s request for repatriation of Sri Lankan Tamil fisherman A. Mariyadoss, the latter has again knocked on the door of District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) in Ramanathapuram for relief.

When the district-level Joint Interrogating Committee (JIC), chaired by the then Collector S. Natarajan. held that no case was made out against the fisherman and recommended his repatriation, Mariyadoss, 37, thought that decks had been cleared for his repatriation and he could join his family soon. But the government was yet to respond to the Collector’s recommendation.

The fisherman, who had been yearning to return home ever since he was rescued by Rameswaram fishermen, when he battled for life after his boat capsized on the high seas in December 2017, presented a petition to DLSA here on Thursday, requesting the authority to take up his case again and secure him relief.

Sub Judge and DLSA Secretary V. Ramalingam said DLSA would forward his petition to the Secretary of Public (SC) Department for necessary action. A copy of the petition would be sent to State Legal Services Authority. The JIC meeting took up the case in August after DLSA’s intervention on behalf of the fisherman.

Mariyadoss, who hailed from Talaimannar, said he was the sole breadwinner of the family and his wife and daughters were struggling to make both ends meet for nearly 10 months now, he said.

Meanwhile, U. Arulanandam, president of the Alliance for the Release of Innocent Fishermen, who has gone to Kayts in northern Sri Lanka in connection with a court case, said Mariyadoss’s wife met him there and enquired about her husband. “It was heart-wrenching to watch the woman cry,” he said.

Source: The Hindu

-Agencies